The Future of Panhandling

Another one of my coworker’s whiteboards digitized. This one focuses on how QR codes are popping up everywhere. First it was restaurants and now they can be found in everything from grocery stores to hardware warehouses. Soon people will be placing QR codes on the backs of their cars instead of using long web addresses and maybe even panhandlers will now have Paypal accounts in order to collect their donations.

Smart phones and mobile computing sure have made our lives more connected.

Osama Bin Laden is Dead – Funniest Twitter Quotes

Graciously borrowed from http://sheikyermami.com/

So Osama is dead… shot in the dome-piece as I heard on the radio this morning. I could hardly believe it when the stream first started coming over twitter. My first thoughts was how long have we been looking for that guy? and Ok now what.

Anyway with the flood of tweets to read about I got amped up and decided to post my favorite ten tweets of the event.

@DanaArikane:
"They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life."

@rochellethestats:
"It’s like a Disney film… The Prince marries the Princess and the villain dies #justice"

@sickipediabot:
"So Osama Bin Laden is dead… Amazing what the Americans can do when the playstation network is down."

@Allwazerite:
"I bet Osama Bin Laden was killed after his personal information was leaked in the Playstation Network security breach."

@jesus:
"Sorry, you’re at the wrong gate, Osama."

@JediJunkie:
"Looks like Osama signed up for Foursquare on the wrong day."

@rudygay22:
"Ok so we killed Osama. Now all we have to do is find Wald and Carmen San Diego! Then I will be impressed!!!"

@unknown:
"Osama Bin Laden, Waldo, Carmen San Diego… #WorldHideAndSeekChampions" *

@NZAfro:
"R.I.P Osama Bin Laden – World Hide And Go Seek Champion (2001 – 2011)"

@davidbates:
"I bet Apple found Osama Bin Laden using that Remote Iphone Data… he was selling goats on ebay"

* I saw this one but could not find it again once I started writing this post… if your that person contact me on twitter.

Hope you enjoy National “We kicked his ass” day
David Bates

Digital Snow

Above is another creation from Barbara Hullett her original artwork is on the right with my vectorization on the left.

This drawing was inspired by the recent weather events and modern times. The recent weather events are also known as the biggest let down in weather this century. Several counties around the triad called off school in anticipation of Snowmageddon and nothing showed up until well into the evening. Facebook and Twitter were both on fire with scowls of angry parents telling the school board and the weathermen that they had waisted their precious PTO.

I myself even got caught up in the hype staying home Monday and working remotely.

Hope all you stay warm and enjoy the imagery.
David Bates

Birds Falling

A quick note about the artwork
A co-worker of mine Barbara Hullett draws a picture on her dry erase board every couple of weeks for our teams amusement (you may have seen some of her other drawings on my twitpic feed). Sometimes its whimsical, sometimes a play on words or the latest news, but almost always involves a cat. We have all come to appreciate her artwork here. The photo you see above is a vector re-creation of her most recent board “Birds Falling” done by myself.

I was recently shocked when I went through my news-feed to find that thousands of birds were falling out of the sky and thousands of fish near the same town were floating up on-shore. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t immediately issue a warning for the area asking people to stay indoors, or even a “Don’t touch the birds” broadcast. The clean up crews that entered the town wore total protective suits including air filters but left the regular townsfolk to fend for themselves. Almost like a scene directly from “The Crazies” where the whole town become infected because action wasn’t taken to separate the towns people and test them.

The conclusion that the birds died from stress due to fireworks is completely ridiculous. Especially given that fish died as well. I just am baffled how casual this whole situation was dealt with and thought I should jot it down.

Thanks for reading
David Bates

Clay Shoot at Floyd County Coon hunters Lodge. Includes a Steel Cannon

We have been remodeling out laundry room for that past couple of weeks and wanted to get away this weekend so we came up to visit Donna and George in Floyd.
George had invited me to a clay shoot today and I must say that I am glad that he did. I am pyrotechnic at heart (don’t believe me?) so anytime I have a change to shoot or blow something up I am happy.

This was my first time clay shooting so I was kinda nervous especially since my father-in-law was letting me borrow is brand new mossberg. In fact I think I was more nervious about breaking something on his gun than anything else. We’ll anyway I did well for a beginner I got 6 out of 25. Including a couple off a wobble platform. If anything else I got to see a lot of nice people and eat some good hotdogs. But of course that is not all. I got to fire not only a .12 gauge but a .10 gauge and a steel cannon. Watch the video below.

And now that you have seen someone else light it here is me running away from it after I lit it

As I said great day, great food, and great fellowship.
David Bates